HAMISH MENZIES may be 79 but he is looking forward to tackling the busy festive season as the longest-serving post office worker in the UK.

WHEN you’re struggling down to the post office with handfuls of cards and armfuls of parcels over the next few weeks in the run-up to Christmas, spare a thought for Hamish Menzies before grumbling.

The 79-year-old Scot is preparing for his 64th consecutive year, working at the sharp end of the festive season, as the longest-serving post office worker in the UK.

Hamish, the sub-postmaster in Callander, started work at the Post Office aged 15 as a telegram boy, cycling over the hills and fields to deliver important news and messages across the Trossachs.

And aside from a two-year stint in the army doing National Service, where he also ran a post office, the dedicated community servant has worked non-stop in delivery of the mail ever since.

He did almost 20 years as a van-driving postie and for the last 40 years has been the postmaster in his home town. But even as he faces up to his 64th Christmas rush in a row, he said he is just as excited at helping deliver presents and greetings now as he was back in the post-war years.

Hamish Menzies has many memories of his life as a postal worker

While the job has changed since the pre-health and safety days when he and his colleagues were under orders to get the post through at all costs and in all weather conditions, he said he still loves every minute of post office life and has no plans to retire anytime soon.

Hamish, also an accomplished Scots dance band leader, runs the post office in the Stirlingshire town and can't believe that it’s been nearly six-and-a-half decades since he first started.

“It certainly doesn’t feel half as long as that,” he said. “I’ve just always felt it was an important job to do, and something to do for the whole community. When I started, we were all civil servants and were always told about our duty to get the mail through. It’s something I have always taken great pride in.”

Hamish started off his career as a telegram messenger in nearby Doune in 1948. He said: “Back then it was just after the war and there weren’t too many houses with phones, so the telegram was very important for people, especially in rural areas around here.

“It was good fun and lots of good exercise. I’d worked as a milk boy before that so I was always used to getting out and about over the countryside. It definitely suited me.”

When he was 18, Hamish was called up to the Army for his National Service and posted to the former West Germany.

It turned out to be a busman’s holiday, though, as he found out that telegram boys were sensibly posted to the busiest post office for the British Armed Forces.

Sub postmaster Hamish Menzies with a pal when he was based in Germany

“That was fun. I was out there for two years and it was a pleasure to work there. It was really well organised and I loved all the military structure of the way it worked out. They really knew how to run the post.

“When I came back, I didn’t want to work anywhere else, so went home and rejoined the post office here.”

Hamish found local fame as leader of the Hamish Menzies Scots dance band and married his beautiful wife Marion (now 72) in 1962.

They have one son, Callum, 46, who works in the Post Office shop with Hamish and two teenage grandkids.

“I started off as a postman delivering to all the rural areas around the hills,” explained Hamish.

“It was hard work. Even if the winter was really bad and the snow drifting up the hills, we were always told we had to get the post through.

“These days there are very strict health and safety rules that say you cannot endanger yourself or the vehicle but we were all civil servants and were doing our duty.”

In 1972, Hamish was asked to apply for promotion and was awarded the title of sub-postmaster, a title he has held ever since and one that fills him with pride.

“At first it was very hard to get used to being indoors all day,” he admitted. “It’s very busy, though, so I got used to it. It’s hard to believe I’ve had this very same job for 40 years.

“It’s definitely a good job and you get to know everyone. The golfer Sandy Lyle lives nearby so pops in sometimes and is always very friendly.

“The job has changed a lot. It used to be that everything was done on a local level but now all the mail is sorted in Glasgow before coming out here.

Sub postmaster Hamish Menzies checks through some paperwork at the Callander Post office

“A lot of people have said that there is less post these days but it’s still busy enough. And at this time of year it’s always good fun.”

Even after more than six decades as the real-life Santa Claus of the Trossachs, Hamish has never grown tired of the role. As well as being a busy postmaster, Hamish and son Callum also run a neighbouring giftshop and a small garden centre.

And as his busiest time of the year is just starting to hot up, Hamish said: “Christmas is very busy and it picks up at the start of December when people start posting things out and getting their cards sorted.

“Things are different at Christmas in that there used to be piles and piles of parcels all going out but there’s not as much any more.